In today's society, one may feel overwhelmed by the thoughts of despair and hopelessness when it comes to true love in a relationship. Divorce has become a fixture in the average American home as well as separation or never settling down at all. William Shakespeare's love poems have always provided a timeless example of emotion, despite the passing of time. The optimism and relativity that his work, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds...", carries into our present existence are profound. This poem fits right into our world today and it enlightens along with providing hope.
             The poem speaks of the love in marriage as "an ever-fixed mark", never changing despite what troubles may come or how much time passes. Shakespeare says, "Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom"; this line clearly states that true love endures time and even embraces it no matter what misfortune sets in. What Shakespeare doesn't do, which is admirable, is say what love should be like, or how two people who claim to be in love should behave with one another. He simply states what love is, what true love personifies; it is a fact not his personal opinion. He supports this truth in saying, "If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, no nor man ever loved". He is so confident in what he is saying, that he would be willing to jeopardize his devotion to writing if someone were to prove him wrong.
             It may appear at first glance that this poem does not offer hope, but in fact, evokes the opposite. However, by Shakespeare subsequently denying the classification of some relationships as true love, he is still supporting the reality of true love's existence. This is where the sanguinity takes place for all those lost romantics in the world. Shakespeare emits a tone of passion and admiration through his words, rather than criticism, which other writers would most likely do with the same context. This is why he ...